A hemp growing project which offers hope to small farmers in the poverty stricken Eastern Cape could be derailed because hemp is still an illegal substance.
Department of health rules, which lump hemp together with dagga, could scupper plans for the mass production and marketing of the plant.
"The status of the hemp plant is still the same as dagga, but the narcotic ingredient of the hemp plant is much less," said Andreas Plöddemann, a scientist at the Medical Research Council.
Plöddemann said it was time for a review of legislation.
The Medicines Control Council authorises two special permits, one for importing seeds and the other for growing hemp, for the Eastern Cape pilot project.
The provincial agriculture department said hemp cultivation in South Africa started in 1999 through collaboration between the Agricultural Research Council, the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the government and the private sector.
"Hemp is foreign to us and we were using hemp cultivars from Hungary, Yugoslavia, France and Poland," said Monde Sotana, a provincial agriculture official.
Sotana said the current phase began after initial trials showed hemp could be grown in local conditions.
The latest phase includes large-scale hemp cultivation by pioneer farmers, training and development skills, co-operative agreements with hemp producing countries, commercialisation and marketing, and a "hemp seed multiplication scheme".
"Hemp breeding has progressed to a level on which we can register a South African cultivar. A multiplication scheme on local hemp seed can be done then, and seed will be affordable to the farmers," said Sotana.